Latest news with #NOSI
CBC
14-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Heat-pump scheme banned in Ontario snares Miramichi homeowner
Social Sharing Theresa Marcotte now regrets her decision four years ago to have two heat pumps installed in her Miramichi home. The equipment's not the problem. It's the contract she signed in December 2020. It said for $160 a month, Simply Green Home Services would install two mini-splits and provide ongoing service and maintenance for the next 10 years. "Why would you buy one when you can rent it from them, and they take care of it?" Marcotte said to explain her decision. "That's a good sales pitch, and I fell for it." Marcotte's understanding was that at the end of the 10-year contract, Simply Green would take the heat pumps back. Or if she decided within that time that she no longer wanted to rent them, the company would take them back earlier, and her monthly payments would end. She admits she didn't read the fine print, but said there was also more to the deal that the salesperson didn't explain to her. Loan included 'NOSI' on Marcotte's home Earlier this year, Marcotte applied for a home equity loan to help her daughter with college expenses. "And in the final stages, it came up, these two liens against my house — one for each mini-split — that I didn't know about," she said in an interview after working a full day as a personal support worker. It turns out they weren't exactly liens. According to the land registry office, the encumbrance on Marcotte's property title is a notice of security interest. People call them NOSIs, pronounced no-sees. Two were registered on the title to her home by Crown Crest Capital, part of the Simply Green group of companies. A notice of security interest tells a potential homebuyer that a lender has an interest in a specific fixture on the property — often a piece of equipment such as a heat pump or a furnace. That's different from a lien, which gives the lender a claim against a property and a right to be paid from the proceeds of a sale. Marcotte had never heard of a NOSI and immediately put the home equity loan on pause as she tried to figure out what it was and what it meant for her personal finances. NOSIs now illegal in Ontario NOSIs are allowed in New Brunswick, but they were recently banned in Ontario after a class-action lawsuit was brought against the same company Marcotte rented her heat pumps from. Plaintiffs claimed Simply Green used the same technique with as many as 54,000 households in Ontario. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said it was typical for homeowners to enter into agreements without a clear understanding of their obligations, as required by the Creditor Protection Act. The Simply Green group of companies would then register a NOSI on the homeowner's land title. "The Simply Group then waits until the consumer has to sell or refinance her home," said the factum of the class action plaintiffs. "At that point, often pressed for time with an upcoming closing or refinancing, the consumer has no choice but to pay whatever amount Simply Group demands, sometimes up to ten times the new market value of the equipment in question." Simply Green told Marcotte that to have the NOSIs removed from her property, she would have to pay the company more than $5,600 per heat pump to buy out the contract. She would then own the mini-splits. Combined with the rent she has already paid, the buy out would bring the cost of two mini-splits to more than $19,000, well above the cost of buying them new. To protect consumers from fraud and bad actors, the Ontario government passed legislation last year that made it illegal to register NOSIs on consumer goods and retroactively rendered existing NOSIs expired. NOSIs a 'scourge,' lawyer says Lawyer David Sterns, counsel for the plaintiffs, believes lawmakers in New Brunswick should follow suit and ban NOSIs as well. "One of the best things about the settlement is that the NOSIs will all be removed," he said. "They can all get wiped out. There's a certain amount of administration that's involved in that, but these companies no longer have that leverage over everybody to be able to extract whatever payment amounts they want." Sterns said the real function of NOSIs was debatable but they did have a terrifying effect on a lot of people. " And I hope any legislature, any person in position of power in New Brunswick who's listening to this gets working on writing a bill that gets rid of NOSIs because they are a scourge." 'I feel like I've been scammed' Marcotte said the entire experience has left her feeling duped. The NOSIs remain on her property, and despite the ruling in Ontario, Simply Green won't remove them unless she pays the lump sum of more than $11,000. Her other option is to continue renting the mini-splits for the remainder of her contract and hire her own lawyer to have the NOSIs removed in the meantime. She said coming up with the buyout sum of $11,000 is unmanageable and unreasonable. An HVAC provider CBC News spoke with said two brand new heat pumps for Marcotte's home would cost about $8,000 plus tax. Marcotte said she feels trapped, and it's small consolation that thousands of homeowners in Ontario got taken in by similar schemes. "Based on how the representative explained things — and based on similar ads I'd seen on TV about renting HVAC equipment — I thought this was a standard rental setup with a fixed monthly payment and the ability to discontinue the service when no longer needed." "I feel like I've been scammed," Marcotte said. "You know, like, no one was truthful. They truly convinced me that this was just a rental program." Company response to CBC News The class action against Simply Green Home Services was settled on terms accepted in April by an Ontario court. According to the settlement agreement, the defendants continue to deny all allegations of wrongdoing, fault, liability, or damage of any kind. CBC News asked Simply Green Home Services for an interview, but the company declined because it's currently under creditor protection. The company also declined to comment on Marcotte's account because of privacy legislation. The New Brunswick Financial and Consumer Services Commission advises homeowners to read the fine print in any contract and seek advice or clarification on any parts of a contract they don't understand. "All of your rights as a consumer in regards to that contract are going to be included in the contract," said Marissa Sollows, the commission's director of communications and public affairs. "That's why it's critical to read it." Sollows said the contract should spell out the total amount a consumer will have paid at the end of the loan term, including interest and fees. Mark Marshall, who's been counselling borrowers in the Maritimes for 25 years, said he does see people enter agreements they don't fully understand. "You should always be looking for any kind of trigger words that would say 'security' or 'personal guarantee.' Anything that would kind of make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up a little bit." Marcotte said she wanted to take her story public because homeowners may not know about NOSIs, and they may not know about the class action settlement, which applies to homeowners across Canada who signed equipment leasing contracts with Simply Green between July 17, 2013, and Jan. 15, 2025. The deadline to file a claim is Oct. 3, 2025. Marcotte also complained to the Better Business Bureau, saying she was not satisfied with the options the company has given her. Marcotte wants the NOSIs removed at no cost to her because, she said, what the company did was unethical.
Middle East
17-04-2025
- Business
- Middle East
OPEN// PM follows up NOSI financial status
CAIRO, April 17 (MENA) - Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said the National Organization for Social Insurance (NOSI) is playing a very important role via providing social protection to manpower and including workforce under the umbrella of social insurance in addition to the organization's role in investing money surplus via the NOSI's investment fund. During a meeting the prime minister held Thursday to follow up on the financial status of the NOSI in presence of Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk and Chairman of the NOSI Gamal Awad the minister of finance said, investments of NOSI in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 increased by EGP 44.2 billion. He added that the increase amounted to 7.8% compared to the former fiscal year. (MENA) M H K/S A S
Al-Ahram Weekly
18-02-2025
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Digitising social security - Egypt - Al-Ahram Weekly
Egypt is launching a new digital social security system for insured groups and pensioners that will promote financial inclusion 'Egypt is set to launch its digital social insurance and pensions system before 30 June this year,' said Gamal Awad, head of the National Organisation for Social Insurance (NOSI), at a press conference at the International Conference on Management and Innovation in Social Security held in Cairo last week. The new system will enable people to access their pensions and social insurance via an e-platform, allowing them to retrieve insurance numbers, view pension details, process transactions, submit documents, and complete procedures online, all without the need for in-person visits, Awad added. 'The next step will be the development of a mobile application handling all social insurance services. It will also leverage artificial intelligence to enhance the services available.' Egypt's social insurance framework has remained in a closed-loop system since 1982, lacking the flexibility for updates or integration, Awad said. 'We had no framework that allowed for system modifications or improvements. So, out first step was to develop an open, data-sharing infrastructure that connects with various state agencies and that will also support other ministries in their plans.' The digitisation of Egypt's pensions system faces a host of challenges. According to a February 2025 World Bank report on reforming Egypt's pensions system, one of the primary obstacles is the paper documents that are likely scattered across multiple locations over decades. The issue has been compounded by legislation requiring social insurance records to be kept at the headquarters of public institutions, necessitating the long-term preservation of documents related to insurance entitlements and administrative operations. To address this challenge, the NOSI has launched a digitisation campaign to convert contribution and payment records into a single digital format. Given the sheer volume of documents concerned, amounting to tens of millions, the NOSI has implemented a new system for scanning, managing, and storing records while adhering to regulatory frameworks. Its e-documentation system will reduce the reliance on paper records, which will be stored in an archiving facility in close proximity to the New Administrative Capital. However, the data migration process that the digitisation entails has not come without challenges. According to the World Bank report, decades of operations have led to disparities in data management, with gaps in some information. These discrepancies pose problems in reformatting and updating old data, including those contained in paper records. As a result, the overall pace of data migration, as well as the transition to the new administrative information system, has slowed down. Regarding concerns about the ability of pensioners to adapt to the new technology, Awad said a large number of pensioners are proficient in using the Internet and mobile applications, while the rest can seek the assistance of younger family members or friends to complete the necessary transactions. The digital transformation of the pensions system, now nearing completion, is the culmination of several preparatory steps, Awad said, explaining that it had begun with the financial inclusion of pensioners. 'In 2022, there were 9.5 million pensioners in Egypt, three million of whom had bank accounts. Today, all pensioners have bank and postal accounts and Meeza cards, and they can receive their pensions through e-wallets,' he said. Mohamed Azman, head of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), told Al-Ahram Weekly that 'we are working alongside member states [of the ISSA] to prioritise the digital transformation, which is key to advancing social protection services.' The ISSA has shared several pioneering initiatives, Azman said, citing Algeria's successful implementation of a fully digitised medical records system, as well as other nations that have ventured into the realm of telemedicine. Brazil has pioneered digital social insurance, enabling millions of people to access pensions through digital means. He added that accessibility and trust are integral to building systems that benefit communities and not only institutions. The NOSI first introduced its digitisation programme in 2023, including the creation of an e-platform and front-office systems meant to serve insured people and pensioners. The new system consists of unified central databases that will enhance the performance of staff responsible for implementing insurance services, eliminating the reliance on human intervention. Additionally, the system will feature a platform for e-payments, digital documentation, and a centralised e-archive. It is meant to introduce innovative solutions to operational challenges, promote financial inclusion, combat corruption, provide important data for decision-makers, increase productivity, and reduce costs. The executive regulations of the Social Insurance and Pensions Law 148/2019, outlined in Decree 2437/2021, mandate the NOSI to establish a schedule for full digital adoption, ensuring that all data are submitted electronically. * A version of this article appears in print in the 20 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link:
